Probe into fires

INVESTIGATIONS are still on going into two fires at business premises and a former school.

FIRE SCENE: Police survey the damage to the old Moss Field Primary School buildings.

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INVESTIGATIONS are still on going into two fires at business premises and a former school.

A police spokesman said it was now thought the blaze which wrecked a large part of the Moss Field Community Primary School building in West Starkey Street may have been caused by water leaking on to electrics.

Contractors moved in this week to start demolishing the former school, which has stood empty since children moved to the new Woodland Community Primary School last September.

A large section of the school was destroyed last Monday night in the mystery blaze, which started in a storeroom and rapidly spread through four classrooms of the single storey block.

Fire crews suspected arson after a graffiti message was found scrawled on a wall near the seat of the fire.

But there have been repeated vandal attacks since the school closed and it was later revealed that council workmen had put buckets in the building to catch water drips the previous day after rain leaked through the roof.

At the height of the blaze, firefighters had to make a rapid retreat when the slate roof collapsed.

The following night, 20 tonnes of hay aboard a steel-sided trailer was destroyed in another suspicious fire at animal feeds and pet products company Creature Comforts in York Street.

Firefighters stopped the blaze spreading to the premises from the rear storage yard.

And though the company faced a massive clearing up operation, it made sure customers came first.

Even as a tractor and trailer was being used to cart away the remains of the bales, it was business as usual inside.

Company chief Rick Purser said: "It caused a real mess and a lot of extra work, but we didn't let it affect business. Everything just continued as usual."

It was the second fire involving a load of hay at the premises in the past seven years. In 2001, two juveniles were arrested and appeared before a youth court.

Police were called in after last week's blaze when firefighters discovered that a steel spar on a security gate had been forced.